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The health care industry is changing, and that could mean a bigger role for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Health Center in serving surrounding communities.

Bill Thorne, clinic administrator, said the tribal council is considering what role the center might play in serving a broader community. It already served members of the Potawatomi Nation and other tribes, he said, but recently began offering some services to non-Indians who are employed by the tribal government.

Thorne said he doesn’t anticipate a rush of people seeking care, because non-Indian employees already had insurance and most have a primary care doctor. The new arrangement will allow the clinic to offer vaccines, acute care and other medical services, with the same co-pays and deductibles they would have with another doctor, which may be more convenient for employees and would let the tribe test how offering services to a broader community might work, he said. Dental care and pharmacy services aren’t included.

The clinic also is expanding behavioral health services, Thorne said. Most people seeking behavioral health care need help with an individual mental health or substance abuse disorder, but occasionally a couple would want to get therapy together and need to go elsewhere because one spouse was non-Indian and not covered, he said.

“It doesn’t work well if you only have one-half of the couple,” he said.

Though those situations likely won’t apply to many people, bigger changes could come as the health care landscape morphs, Thorne said. If the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, remains in force, more people will seek care, straining resources in rural areas and creating a need for more providers, he said.

“We could expand and provide primary care to people in Holton or Hoyt,” he said.

On the other hand, if the courts or Congress invalidate large portions of the health care law, it could mean more people will become uninsured and need to seek care in some other way, again raising the question of whether the center has a role to play, Thorne said.

In either case, the tribal council would have to approve any changes, and the changes would have to make financial sense for the clinic and the tribe, Thorne said. Expanding services to non-Indian tribal employees is an “experiment” to see how it might work, he said, and the next step might be to offer services to casino employees who aren’t tribal members and are covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield.